* from "Songs of Time, of Love, of Wonder" (1995): The Love a Life can Show Below" (Emily Dickinson)  Elizabeth Anker, contralto; and Leslie Amper, piano; in recital at the Longy School of Music, Cambridge, MA

     This excerpt is the final phrase of the middle song of the cycle of five, a setting of a poem by Emily Dickenson. It acts as the pivotal song, as the texts of the poems have been gradually drawing our attention away from the earth and up to the skies. The vocal line is simple at first, then opens into a broad melisma at the moment when the poem reveals what love has the power to accomplish. The accompaniment exploits the entire range of the piano, and the reverberation of the long last chord connects to the next song in the cycle, which starts out with images of a starry night. The cycle was commissioned by Ms. Elizabeth Anker, contralto.